Last Album you listened through

Abigail - King Diamond

This is a very finely crafted record. You can tell that just about every single note was put in place to enhance the story in some way. I was actually on the edge of my seat wondering what would happen next.

Love it.

edited 28th Oct '14 11:17:28 AM by Alucard

Queensrÿche - Queensrÿche (self-titled EP)

Although it's only four songs and a bit over 15 minutes in length, this EP marked quite a debut for the band. Quite different from some of their more well-known material, as this comes across as more Iron Maiden than Operation: Mindcrime; this is not a bad thing at all, however, as I first thought "Queen of the Reich" was an Iron Maiden song when I first saw the video.

Nightrider sounds like one of those songs that should be some kind of hit, or at least a fan-favorite. Sadly, it doesn't get played much.

The Byrds - Dr. Byrds and Mr. Hyde.

It's probably their least well-regarded album, albeit not without reason. Other than This Wheel's On Fire, the album doesn't really have anything spectacular. The most interesting thing about it is the fact that they alternate between hard rock/early metal and country rock.

Velvet Revolver, Contraband...great album, it's a shame that Weiland couldn't keep his shit together.

• Slapp Happy/Henry Cow: Desperate Straights

Aided and abetted by notorious avant-gardists Henry Cow, Slapp Happy transform themselves from a snarky, egg-headed deconstruction of commercial pop songs into full-on Kurt Weill-esque art song, with singer Dagmar Krause (who, incredibly, got her start singing folk songs!) taking on the Weill-esque diva role as though she were always meant to do so. Which, it seems, she was, since it was this album that pointed the way for her future (and also cemented her reputation as a “hard-to-listen-to” singer; she can be awfully shrill at times).

Black Flag - Rise Above
Weezer - Pinkerton
Jimmy Eat World - Bleed American
The Rentals - Return Of The Rentals

I am going to a show where local bands are doing cover sets of Weezer, The Rentals, and Jimmy Eat World - JEW are the only band in that list who don't really have direct connections to the other ones ^note The Rentals are fronted by ex-Weezer bassist Matt Sharp, but they started out around the same time and in my experience there was a lot of fandom overlap. No one is doing any Black Flag covers, I just like listening to short, fast punk rock albums first thing in the morning sometimes.

R.E.M. - Automatic for the People

Boy, "Ignoreland" sure feels out of place on this album compared to the rest of the songs.

edited 8th Nov '14 11:58:36 AM by djbj

Led Zeppelin – The fourth album.

43 years to the day after it was released, appropriately enough.

edited 8th Nov '14 3:45:41 PM by MrLavisherMoot

That song does stand out an awful lot, but I sort of like it. The distorted guitars and somewhat buried, Indecipherable Lyrics kinda make it an unintentional foreshadowing of Monster. And I can see where, if one were a politically left-leaning American, the lyrics could be kind of cathartic.

RJD 2 - Deadringer... Sort of - See, this was being played over the work loudspeakers, so I made a playlist that deliberately skipped three tracks because of language - Most of this album is instrumental, but "F.H.H." and "June" have guest rappers who use a few obscenities, and "Take The Picture Off" has a repeated sample of someone exclaiming "Oh shit!".

Various Artists - Motown: The Classic Years.

• Thierry Fervant: Seasons of Life

Swiss synthesist who has clearly heard a Jean-Michel Jarre album or two in his day. I don’t really have much else to say about this one.

The Black Keys, Turn Blue

Softer than what I was expecting overall but still a great album.

edited 10th Nov '14 6:18:09 AM by Willbyr

James Blunt - Back to Bedlam and All the Lost Souls, in a row. I actually prefer the second album - it was a bit more down-to-earth and real than the first, and I just preferred more of the songs.

Monster Magnet's Spine Of God (still as toweringly trippy as I remembered from way back when, but not as heavy as the later stuff, arguably) and, before that, All Shall Fall by Immortal (well-produced, melodic Black Metal, but a bit heavier than the rest of their latter-day material...). I recommend 'em both highly.

Time by ELO, many times this week.

Public Image LTD - First Issue (or Public Image). Kind of an non-cohesive mess, but there's a handful of really good songs (most notably "Public Image" itself, which is as catchy as early PIL ever got, and the terrifically creepy "Annalisa"), and the infamous filler piece "Fodderstompf" is actually kind of hilarious.

Five Leaves Left by Nick Drake.

/ Both great albums.

Solid State Survivor by Yellow Magic Orchestra. A fine album by one of the very few groups whose influence can be compared with that of Kraftwerk. Not to mention their use of one of an innovative synth there was at the time, but which no one had used (can't remember which model). The biggest highlights are, of course, "Technopolis", "Rydeen" and "Behind The Mask" (yes, it was originally written by them, not Michael Jackson).

Carlos Santana and John Mc Laughlin, "Love Devotion Surrender". It's good but not amazing, and with a title like that I sort of expected...I dunno, something a bit more searching or spiritual? It's a shredfest that drags, but the slow parts aren't exactly emotionally resonant or anything. Still enjoyable.

Thick as a Brick by Jethro Tull. I got the CD a few months ago and I wanted to listen to it all the way through before the year ended. I previously only made it halfway through. It was certainly and interesting listen, not sure what to say about it now. I've found that for the prog epics I've listened to it takes several listens for me to properly digest them.

BTW, this is a good example of an album whose artwork suffers from being shrunk down to a CD booklet. The text on the fake newspaper is really small. I plan to start a vinyl collection at some point, and this might be one album I get, so I can enjoy the artwork properly.

edited 31st Dec '14 7:30:26 PM by djbj

A Wilhelm Scream - Partycrasher

Technical skate punk, good but seems slightly stale compared to 2007's Career Suicide.

Common Drop by Boyinaband and MUST DIE!. 10 tracks, 10 EDM genres, made on a 24 hour livestream. Man, that was a fun stream.

Not including greatest hits or compilations/soundtracks:

Pink Floyd - The Dark Side Of The Moon Boston - first album

Nine Inch Nails - Pretty Hate Machine. A couple things struck me with this listen: 1) not that it's ever really had the Seinfeld Is Unfunny effect with me, but it's just now occurred to me that it was probably more unique-sounding in 1989: EBM was probably an influence, but I don't think anyone was combining those elements with melodies this catchy or vocals and lyrics so full of messy human angst. 2) I never thought of this album as anything approaching "dance music" 'til I started going to a "retro" dance night where "Head Like A Hole" and "Ringfinger" were staples - those songs sound great blaring out of a club sound-system, and they do seem to get the dance floor going.

The Bangles - All Over the Place

Relistening to write up a tropes page. Sunny as fuck and no outright bad songs, but none are exactly amazing either. For a rather one-tone album, several songs are more memorable than they seem when actually listening.